1F/ Functional Identity

Functional Identity

Thursday 1F

Convener: Joe Andrieu

Notes-taker(s): Jeremy Rosenberg

Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered: Functional Identity

Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

• What is functional identity?
  • As engineers, how can we talk to lay people without confusing them? Reinforced by ID2020.
  • Nobody seems able to answer what Legal Identity means
  • The fish doesn’t need to define the water and we tend to use shorthand.
• Not philosophical, meta-physical, cultural
  • Not just digital (Identity is bigger than that)
• What is the subjective notion of identity?
  • Who Joe is, resides in the minds of everyone who knows Joe.
  • Inherently distributed in the eyes of the beholders.
  • Joe doesn’t exist if you can’t recognize Joe.
• Names are pointers
• How we keep track of others and how others keep track of us
• If I’m alone on an Island, do I need an identity?
  • No, functional use for an identity if you are alone?
• Identity is the property of being known
• It seems very hard not to get philosophical.
• ISO Definition of Identity, fixates on a golden set of attributes
• A lot of identity is contextual, separate identity and personae depending on context
  • You identity will always be bigger than your attributes
• Tendency is to think that we can model this with a digital model
• The model or the map is not the territory, which can lock us into the tyranny of data
• When talking about people who deal with money laundering or refugees, there is nothing in the system to anchor to
• Self is part of others
• A DID is like a stem cell that hasn’t differentiated until it’s correlated
• Identity is prehistoric, so what is it? We are trying to talk to soccer moms and engineers.
• Descartes – I register on facebook therefore I am
  • Ubuntu, I am who am I because of who we all are
• Identity changes over time
  • Mountains used to be a place for exile, so a mountain climber was a witch
  • Then mountain climbers became conquerors
  • Today Mountain climbers are athletes
• Social identity theory vs identity theory
• Who you are informs who I present myself to be informs how I am seen which informs who I am. (A triangle)
  • Who you are = how I see myself
• In Brazilian tribes you often meet people who can refer to 18 generations of their ancestors by name also a child is not the property of their parents, but is a child of the tribe
• Potential Answers
  • Nouns and Verbs in an identity system
    • Nouns
      • Identifiers
        • Used to identify someone across contexts
      • Attributes
        • Correlate identifiers and they become attributes
        • Providence of attributes is turtles all the way down
        • Perhaps Descriptors?
        • Only becomes an attribute if evidence is meritorious
        • Characteristics
      • Evidence
        • Perhaps “observations” is more accessible?
        • There is a step that needs to happen to go from evidence to attribute (Apply?)
      • Inferences
        • Conclusions feels is a more accessible word?
    • Verbs
      • Accumulate
        • Collect
        • <group>?
      • Correlate
        • Group?
        • Connect?
      • Infer
        • Reputation is a more accessible word
        • Deduce may be more accurate
        • Conclude?
        • Intuit?
        • Reason?
      • Apply
        • Proving?
        • Validating?
        • Disclosing?
        • Proof?
  • Case studies lead to clarity so lets give examples, use cases
    • Concrete instead of abstract works
  • Really good, accessible analogies work well (magic pennies to explain blockchain)
  • Being more graceful, not calling people stupid
  • Uniqueness of the way one feels and the way one presents themselves
  • Identity is about self, but in practice, it’s about how we relate to others.